Sega of America has been accused of threatening layoffs if workers banned together and created a union. That’s according to the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega (AEGIS) and the Communications Workers of America filed on November 6th.
According to Kotaku and Games Industry.biz They filed an unfair labour practice in the U.S. claiming that Sega planned to “phase out” it’s temporary workers by February of 2024. After that, they’d work on outsourcing those jobs to Europe and Japan.
In a brief post AEGIS writes in part: “We’re disappointed that Sega management has not yet ceased their union busting… We hoped that Sega management would bargain in good faith, but instead they’ve shown disregard to status quo and are threatening to outsource the jobs of a majority of the workforce in our QA and Localization departments, which is up to 40% of our unit.”
We’re disappointed that Sega management has not yet ceased their union busting, even after we’ve won our union election back in July. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/JIGlD9GHjM
— AEGIS-CWA 💙 #UnionizeSEGA (@takesAEGIS) November 16, 2023
Games Industry.biz also received a statement from an AEGIS member that reads: “My coworkers on the bargaining committee were not given any notice that this proposal would be announced to the rest of the company mere hours after the meeting, and before anyone had a chance to review or formulate a response.”
A move like this would affect at least 80 workers at the company.
Earlier this year these staff banded together to create a union that represent 200 employees, the largest multi-department union in the gaming industry. This encompasses key positions like sales, quality assurance, marketing, games as a service, and product development.
